Welp, you kinda knew this one was coming. Netflix has announced the cancelation of both Marvel‘s “The Punisher” and “Jessica Jones.” “The Punisher” season two just premiered a few weeks back and “Jessica Jones” third season is set to premiere later this year, which now feels like a downer when audiences will be watching a series they know will not continue.
This announcement marks the end of the Marvel purge and the Netflix/Marvel deal that was struck back in 2013 and included the four main shows, “Daredevil,” “Iron Fist,” “Jessica Jones,” “Luke Cage” and the culmination of the characters in the “Defenders” limited series. “The Punisher” became an extension of that deal, but all of the series’ are now canceled.
“Marvel’s The Punisher will not return for a third season on Netflix,” Netflix said in a statement. “Showrunner Steve Lightfoot, the terrific crew, and [the] exceptional cast including star Jon Bernthal, delivered an acclaimed and compelling series for fans, and we are proud to showcase their work on Netflix for years to come.”
“In addition, in reviewing our Marvel programming, we have decided that the upcoming third season will also be the final season for Marvel’s Jessica Jones,” Netflix statement continues. “We are grateful to showrunner Melissa Rosenberg, star Krysten Ritter, and the entire cast and crew, for three incredible seasons of this groundbreaking series, which was recognized by the Peabody Awards among many others.”
“We are grateful to Marvel for five years of our fruitful partnership and thank the passionate fans who have followed these series from the beginning.”
READ MORE: New Netflix Survey Seems To Suggest The Inevitable: ‘Jessica Jones’ Is Being Canceled
In a recent interview with Decider, Marvel TV‘s Jeph Loeb stressed the decision to cancel the shows was Netflix’s and Netflix’s alone. “In the Netflix situations, that was a situation where the network made a decision, and we had nothing to say about it,” he explained.
Loeb has held out hope that some of these shows could resurface again. “I would not be surprised if any of those things reemerged,” he said in the same interview. “It depends on showrunner; it depends on [the] availability of cast, all of those things. It’s not like we’re a doctor show where the show got canceled because of bad ratings. These are shows that have very different reasons , most of which I’m not at liberty to talk about, nor should anyone really care at the end of the day.”
What Loeb is likely eluding to is the fact that Disney and Marvel will soon be stripping Netflix of all their content and housing it all exclusively on Disney+. It’s not so much as a retaliatory move as some will see it, but just a relationship that their business relationship is coming to a close so they might as well close the books on all of the projects still in the works.
The part Loeb is missing though, for those that see a lot of hope in his comments about the shows resurfacing is that under the current deal, none of these Netflix characters will be able to resurface anywhere, Hulu, Disney+, etc. until at least 2020.
People obviously knew this announcement and dreaded day was coming. Both Jon Bernthal and Steve Lightfoot danced around the cancelation in recent interviews with The Playlist and Bernthal had an Instagram post ready to go today immediately.
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